Ilhan Omar: ‘My Sisters And I Are Busting Through These Doors’

Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar celebrated the success of women of color in the 2018 midterms with an empowering message on Twitter. 

Omar retweeted on Friday a post featuring The New Yorker’s latest cover, illustrated by artist Barry Blitt, that highlights the diversity among many of the newcomers elected to Congress earlier this week.  

“My sisters and I are busting through these doors and will hold them wide open!” Omar wrote on Twitter. 

Omar became the first Somali-American elected to Congress by winning Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District seat.

Omar also paid tribute to other women of color who broke barriers in the midterm vote, tagging in her tweet Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress; Sharice Davids of Kansas and Deb Haaland of New Mexico, the first Native American women elected to it; Rashida Tlaib on Michigan, who will be the first Palestinian-American congresswoman; and Ayanna Pressley, the first black woman Massachusetts is sending to the House.

Omar and Tlaib also made history as the first Muslim women elected to Congress. 

Also tagged by Omar was Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who in 2016 became the first Indian-American congresswoman elected to Congress. 

 In another tweet on Friday, Omar declared: “Here in [Minnesota] we don’t just welcome refugees and immigrants, we send them to Washington.”